The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1887-03-12
The Girl Baby and Her First Hour
at School.

Tomorrow my baby will be my baby no
longer; she is going to school. Her world
is about to widen, her life is about to
broaden, but l, shall loose my baby.
What short six years they have beenI
They brought her and put her on the pillow
beside me; put my finger near her hand
and she grasped it. Heaven came closer
to me than had ever dared hope it might.
The first day sat up nurse gave her to
me and l held her in my arms. My own
little baby | wanted no past, no future;
| was supremely happy in the present.
When she lay in her crib and followed
me with her eyes that was bli0apper por-
she Good to me; when sne stI
.er little hands to me; when ortion, where
IS came near her All, Goo rather than
20 mothers, and 1 wondered 10Th, there is
.hould come to me. Perl muscles are sub
iecteuf sorrow as she lettin,sile ordinary
clothes. Yetfhe cunning littlets il. Ss5he
ing figure, the aimless steps, tbl is necessary
ing, these, made the change a These mus
ness for the mother, and the.tsst, and any
all my own. Ng tooth raAasr
She has grown in every SSso, y, 9ogssS9Id @s1Sas,s
getting along without TsO''ai properly,
been the pivot around which her hle has
revolved. She has come to me with her
pains, her disappointments, her failures and
her joys. In my ear she has whispered the
wonderful thoughts that childhood lives
upon. No question could reach so high or
pierce such depths but that mamma could
answerit. No danger could threaten herthat
mammals arms were not soft refuge from.
No pain so severe but that mamma could
relieve it.
How many hours in these six years have
we two been together? All, me, we shall
be but one from this on, but we have been
but one thus far. Not any less real to her
than I am, are the hundred heroes of stor-
les that have evolved for her; they seem
very real indeed, to me. IF 1 have enter
tanned her she has no less been my sSchere-
zade,' and has related tales fully as i'm
possible as the Arabian Nights. Of late
she has wandered further away, but never
so far but that she could run quickly home
if her fear was aroused. She has brought
with her thoughts gathered from other
children, but they are brought to be tried
in the crucible of mama's judgment and
wisdom. When she "keeps house" often
take tea with her, and she cannot take more
pleasure in the "make believe" than l do.
But now she is going to school Ishall
lose my baby; l have lost her. She will
leave the door with kisses on her lips, and
my word in her ear, but she will come
home full of school, of companions, and
teachers. She will pass into world where
l am not; where can only follow at
distance; and she will never again be wholly
mine. Oh, good teacher, she is one of fifty
in your room, and, perhaps in your eyes,
one of the least interesting. But, oh, she
is my one eve lamb, and heaven shines on
me out of her eyes. l must share my
kingdom with you. Your praise will count
with her greater than mine; your frown
will be more fearful than all my thunder
ing. She was but a baby an hour ago, but
she is one no longer. shall pick up most
of the playthings and put them away. To-
morrow night she will look on them with
great scorn, she will be baby no longer,
and she will have put away her baby things.
So I sit here pitying myself while press
her to my heart She is full of the hap
piest anticipations, but whisper to my
aching heart-I am about to lose my baby.